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BENGALS NOTEBOOK
Truth’s out: Johnson played hurt
Bengals back set rushing record despite knee injury
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Bill Rabinowitz
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
CINCINNATI – It wasn’t necessarily a secret that something was wrong with Rudi Johnson last season, but the details were always murky.
For most of the season, the Cincinnati Bengals running back didn’t practice on Wednesdays, typically the heaviest practice day of the week. But only now has Johnson revealed what was wrong and how close he came to missing a big chunk of the 2005 season.
Johnson played the final 14 games last season with torn cartilage in his left knee. He hurt the knee in the season’s second week against Minnesota, but he can’t specify the play.
"That’s the crazy part," Johnson said yesterday between minicamp practices. "I went home after the game and I stayed up until about 2 in the morning with no pain. I woke up the next morning and my leg was swollen and hurting. I thought I was just banged up. A couple days went by and it didn’t get any better."
A magnetic resonance imaging the next week revealed the injury.
"When it first happened, we didn’t know if I was going to have surgery during the season and sit six to eight weeks or whatever," Johnson said. "So we took it week by week."
Johnson gutted it out. He didn’t miss a game and broke his own team record for rushing yards in a season with 1,458.
"If you knew him like we know him, you’d know how much of a warrior he actually was," Bengals running backs coach Jim Anderson said.
But even as the yards piled up, Johnson knew he wasn’t the runner he could be.
"I wasn’t as powerful with my left leg," he said. "There were definitely some times I could have pulled out of some tackles or moved the pile more if I’d been 100 percent."
Johnson said he’s not completely pain free, but the knee feels dramatically better than it did a year ago. Not much can be definitely judged in a minicamp devoid of tackling, but Johnson does look to be moving crisper. "He has looked really quick," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. Considering that Johnson broke a record with one good leg, he’s practically salivating about the possibilities this year. "The sky’s the limit," he said.
Truth’s out: Johnson played hurt
Bengals back set rushing record despite knee injury
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Bill Rabinowitz
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
CINCINNATI – It wasn’t necessarily a secret that something was wrong with Rudi Johnson last season, but the details were always murky.
For most of the season, the Cincinnati Bengals running back didn’t practice on Wednesdays, typically the heaviest practice day of the week. But only now has Johnson revealed what was wrong and how close he came to missing a big chunk of the 2005 season.
Johnson played the final 14 games last season with torn cartilage in his left knee. He hurt the knee in the season’s second week against Minnesota, but he can’t specify the play.
"That’s the crazy part," Johnson said yesterday between minicamp practices. "I went home after the game and I stayed up until about 2 in the morning with no pain. I woke up the next morning and my leg was swollen and hurting. I thought I was just banged up. A couple days went by and it didn’t get any better."
A magnetic resonance imaging the next week revealed the injury.
"When it first happened, we didn’t know if I was going to have surgery during the season and sit six to eight weeks or whatever," Johnson said. "So we took it week by week."
Johnson gutted it out. He didn’t miss a game and broke his own team record for rushing yards in a season with 1,458.
"If you knew him like we know him, you’d know how much of a warrior he actually was," Bengals running backs coach Jim Anderson said.
But even as the yards piled up, Johnson knew he wasn’t the runner he could be.
"I wasn’t as powerful with my left leg," he said. "There were definitely some times I could have pulled out of some tackles or moved the pile more if I’d been 100 percent."
Johnson said he’s not completely pain free, but the knee feels dramatically better than it did a year ago. Not much can be definitely judged in a minicamp devoid of tackling, but Johnson does look to be moving crisper. "He has looked really quick," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. Considering that Johnson broke a record with one good leg, he’s practically salivating about the possibilities this year. "The sky’s the limit," he said.
but what's the deal with not reporting it? tom brady also fits into the mold of a player that had a injury much worse than what we were led to believe by the team themselves 
